Education, Conservatism, and the Rise of a Pedagogical Elite in Colombian Panama

This book historically reconstructs the conservative and moderate liberals’ views on governance, morality and education within the context of La Regeneración (1878-1903) in Colombian Panama. de la Guardia Wald explores the way political theories and ideologies, especially conservatism and positivism, shaped late nineteenth-century Panamanian pedagogues’ conceptualizations of proper education for the sake of social regeneration. By demonstrating that Isthmian political and pedagogical debates went beyond the preoccupation for the realisation of classic liberalism and exploitation of Panama’s geographical views, this book challenges the perspective that Panamanian identity was a fabrication of the United States. Instead, this study reveals that the combination of positivist and conservative understandings of morality, reason and good science defined governmental policies intended to recuperate and enhance civic values and nationalism, leading the way to progress and modernity.